Chris Elsberry: Tracing the rich history of the Bridgeport Home Oilers

Updated 1:31 pm, Monday, February 11, 2013

When Bridgeport Mayor Hugh Curran called Pete Correnty and asked for a meeting, Correnty's heart skipped a beat. On the phone, the mayor had spoken about the brand-spanking new Wonderland of Ice facility that had just been completed in the city's North End. The facility had an NHL-sized ice rink with protective Plexiglas and seating for close to 3,000 fans. There were also locker rooms, a concession stand and lots of parking.

All that was missing was a tenant.

So, the head coach and general manager of the Norwalk Home Oilers independent hockey team drove 15 miles to Bridgeport and eventually signed an agreement with Curran to play at Wonderland.

The Bridgeport Home Oilers were born.

For three seasons, the team played as an independent, bringing in the best professional and collegiate teams from around the Northeast to play. Then, in 1971-72, the Home Oilers joined the Canadian-American League, better known as the Can-Am, and won the Mobil Cup trophy before disbanding after the 1972-73 season.

What a five years it was.

"It was fun and I liked it," said center Eno Kraft, 73, who played all five seasons in Bridgeport for the Home Oilers. "We had very good players playing there. Pete was always trying to get the best players he could. We had a great team. I played against a lot of good players and a lot of good teams."

Teams like the Laval (Ontario) Pioneers, the Montreal Stars and the St. Laurent (Ontario) Jets from the Can-Am League, or the independent Lachine (Ontario) Green Hornets, the Sorel (Quebec) O'Keefe Flyers, the Welland (Ontario) Merchants and the Burlington (Ontario) Travelers.

"The play was very, very good," said left winger Bob Veilleux, 73, who also spent five seasons with Bridgeport. "A lot of the guys came from the old Eastern League and were really good."

"The players I brought in had a lot of experience," said Correnty, 81, who still lives in Norwalk. "Seasoned guys. Sam Gregory (who played with Bridgeport from 1968-71) went on to coach in the National Hockey League. Like John Brophy, who coached the (Toronto) Maple Leafs. John Muckler, he coached the Edmonton Oilers. Lou Lamoriello (New Jersey Devils). They all came through Bridgeport at one point."

In the beginning

The Home Oilers were created in the 1930s by the Norwalk Home Oil Company. The owner, W.B. Hopkins, loved hockey and was able to put together a team of local talent. When World War II broke out, the team suspended operations. But two years after the war ended, in 1947, Correnty was able to get Hopkins to sponsor the team again.

"I would referee college games and get paid between $20 and $25," Correnty said. "I would give that money to my mother. We needed it. I had five brothers and sisters."

When he wasn't refereeing games, Correnty was trying his hand as a hockey player for Norwalk High.

"We didn't even have a coach. We had an advisor," Correnty said. "I played as a senior (1948-49). We had a poor record. There were only six or seven teams in high school at the time (Greenwich, Darien, Norwalk, West Haven, Hamden and Hillhouse in New Haven). We'd have to play prep schools. That was tough. Taft had their own rink. At the time, there were only two commercial rinks in the state, the New Haven Arena and us (Crystal). It was hard for a high school team."

And while he never made it as a player, hockey was forever in his blood. As general manager of the Home Oilers, Correnty brought in teams like the Lake Placid (N.Y.) Roamers, the Rhode Island Scarlets, the Patterson (N.J.) Flyers and the New York Rovers -- the farm team of the New York Rangers.

"And we'd beat them." Correnty said. "We started to get good crowds."

The Home Oilers quickly became a hot ticket. Crystal rink only held 1,200 people and if you weren't there at least an hour before the opening faceoff, you weren't getting in.

"Half the people had to stand," Correnty said. "They would stand two to three deep behind chicken-wire fencing. We didn't even have glass. Eventually we had to move (to Bridgeport) because of our fans."

Correnty had to pay his players anywhere from $50 to $200 a game, and he needed to sell tickets. Bridgeport gave him the chance to almost triple his ticket sales at the newly constructed Wonderland.

"We packed the place," Correnty said. "We had good crowds and I brought in good teams. I brought Canadian teams to Bridgeport for the first time. I brought the Montreal Stars there. We'd play at home on Saturday night, fly to Montreal on Sunday morning and play in Montreal in the afternoon. It was a lot of fun."

It was something else, too.

"It was cold," said Kraft, who unofficially scored 64 goals and added 111 assists in those five seasons in Bridgeport. "Both ends of the rink were open and it was always cold. Shifts were supposed to be two minutes, but guys were always trying to stay out there longer because if they sat down on the bench, they'd start freezing."

The players also had to clean the ice so that hockey could be played.

"If we didn't do it, we couldn't play the next game," added Veilleux, who unofficially scored 83 goals and had 86 assists with the Home Oilers.

Getting to Bridgeport

Growing up, Veilleux played with the Thetford Mines of the Ontario Junior A League until he was 22. One day, he says he got a call from Correnty asking if he wanted to come play hockey in the United States. Veilleux wasn't sure.

"I told them, `I don't have a visa ... I don't have a job,'" he said. "`No problem,' came the answer. `We'll get you both.'"

Veilleux's job? Well, he climbed up trees and cut down the tops.

"I used spikes and ropes and ladders," he said. "We didn't have any baskets back then."

Overall, Veilleux spent 10 seasons with Norwalk and Bridgeport. He also got to skate with Bobby Hull.

"I did a television commercial with the Golden Jet," Veilleux said. "Rapid Shave shaving cream. We did it in Long Island and it took 12 hours for that two minutes. I'd pass him the puck and we all had to make sure that his shaving cream wouldn't come off or else we'd have to start all over again."

Kraft spent four seasons (1956-60) with the Guelph Biltmores of the Ontario Hockey Association, skating alongside the likes of future New York Rangers greats Rod Gilbert, Gilles Villemeure and Jean Ratelle. He spent the next eight years in the Eastern League, including four with the New Haven Blades. In 1967-68, he played in the International Hockey League with Toledo and had an opportunity to play in the American Hockey League with Springfield, but with his two daughters in school and a good off-season job with Copa Tires in Branford, Kraft didn't want to travel anymore.

"(Home Oilers goalie) Don Brassil told me to call Pete and give Bridgeport a try," Kraft said. "So I did. Playing in Bridgeport with Pete ... he was a great coach and manager. We played against great competition."

Mark Burns was younger than most Home Oilers -- he was just 22 -- when he arrived in Bridgeport in 1970. Incredibly, Burns started playing goalie with the Oilers at 14 when they were in Norwalk before heading to college and playing three seasons with Brown University. After graduating, the hockey fire still burned and he wanted to keep his career going.

"The competition ... it was pretty good. I'd say one step from the next level," said Burns, who's now 65. He said a lot of the Oilers were All-America-caliber players.

Burns played from 1970-73 with the Oilers before spending the next 10 years as a referee. He hung up the skates for good -- or so he thought -- in 1984.

Almost 20 years later, his son, Jesse -- now a solid goalie himself in junior hockey for the New York Apple Core in Brewster, N.Y. -- wanted to take the test so he could referee games. Burns decided to take the test again.

"I got back into it five years ago," he said. "It helps keep me in shape."

Playing with passion

At the end of the 1971-72 season, the Home Oilers found themselves playing the St. Laurent Jets for the Mobil Cup, the championship trophy of the Can-Am league. The honorary president of the Can-Am league was former Montreal Canadiens great Maurice "the Rocket" Richard, who played from 1942-60 and won eight Stanley Cups. Richard, who was then 50, was there to present the trophy to the winning team at the end of the game. But before, he entered the Bridgeport locker room and did something that Burns remembers as vividly today as when it happened.

"The great Maurice Richard came into our locker room, and I'll never forget it," Burns said. "He stood in front of each player on the team and shook our hands, but what he did was kind of slightly bow as he stood in front of us and spoke to us. To the French Canadian guys, he spoke to them in French, and to the American guys, he spoke in English. It was very moving. He played the game with such passion on the ice and he was asking us to do the same, to pass it on and keep playing with that same passion.

"There's an old saying at the Montreal Forum, `To you from failing hands we throw the torch. Be yours to hold it high.' In fact, when the hockey season started last week, the Montreal players (in a pre-game ceremony) passed a lighted torch from the older to the younger players. I'll never forget that night when Maurice Richard asked us to pass the torch. I've had a lot of interesting experiences in hockey but that was one of the best."

In 1972-73, the Home Oilers again played for the Can-Am title but lost 6-5 in overtime to the Montreal Stars in their last game.

"It was just a little cup in a league that doesn't exist anymore," Burns said. "But, at another level, anytime you win the last game of your whole season, that means you've won the title. When you win the last game, it was very gratifying."

One of the best parts of the Home Oilers' games were the receptions afterward. Correnty's wife, Barbara, would have a table full of food and drink set up for the visiting teams to enjoy.

"We always put out a big spread," Correnty said. "It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun, too. Once the game was over, no matter what had happened, it was over. We got a pretty good reputation doing that."

But after the 1972-73 season, with Correnty unable to come to a new agreement with the city about using Wonderland of Ice and along with the creation of the World Hockey Association, additional expansion in the National Hockey League and the rising costs of paying his players, Correnty disbanded the Home Oilers.

"I had had it," Correnty said. "There were some problems and I just couldn't deal with it anymore."